It is a video of me, Steven Forss playing an Improvised Latin Drum solo using traditional Afro-Cuban Rhythms on the drum-kit and timbales. I used this piece as part of my Audition for the 2011 Best Up and Coming Drummer Compettion.

De la Clave Transcription This is a link to a PDF transcription of the drum solo above.

You can see more videos of me playing crazy drum solo’s on YouTUBE @ http://www.youtube.com/user/Thefossdaddy

The only problem that I cant seem to fix is the issue with the background. You will need to adjust your browser to get the writing on the black centre as to be able to read it clearly.

I have used 2 Creative Commons works in my project:

First. The Background is from viZZZual.com at Flikr

Second. There is a little bed squeak sound in the sound design section thanks to Jackstrebor for this great sample at FreeSound.org

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Anyway Im just finishing up the written component now…

See y’all on the other side…………… The SATOR Experience

This week I have been very busy…

1. I Jammed with Justin (guitarist) and we came up with some ideas for the heavy climax to the song.
2. I met up with Kay. She came to my studio and we went through the material I had and she told me what she thought. Kay also recorded the first few verses of the poem to give me an idea of the feeling she thought the poem/lyrics should have.
3. I also have started producing drafts of the song.

The Refined Concept….

I have put a lot of thought into my actual website and I have it! The website that will be showcasing this song will be a multi-layered fusion between two mediums… written text and sound (music & audio).

I will have the first page that you come to as an introduction to the scene where the poem is set, this page will consist of text written by the author. The text will describe the scene from the protagonists point of view, her feelings and what she can see and smell. I will have an audio file playing whilst the text is being read, it will be a sound design of the space where the text is describing. The sounds will be mostly environmental and ambiance sounds with a few sound effects or foley. The combination of these two mediums will create an immersive and unique experience for anyone attending the site.

Then I will have a link that pops up another site in new window. This site will have the poem displayed as an image and it will have the song playing. The song will play over the original page’s sound design,therefore creating a multi-layered sound experience.

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I will need to research this kind of idea. Does anyone know of it being done before?

SATOR Song Drafts

Draft 1: The first draft I did, its ok

Draft 2: I prefer this one, it may be the keeper.

Sorry about the audio quality, it will improve over time. Let me know what you think about the drafts.

1. Created 4 draft basic guide tracks
2. Recorded a rough vocal guide on 26/4/10
3. Showed Justin (Echo’s Witness guitarist) the tracks 27/4/10
4. Justin showed me some of his ideas for the piece 5/5/10
5. Heard feedback from my first draft from Author Kay she Said: She liked the vocals at the end of the track but not the start (lacked the correct feeling). And she wants the music to ‘lift’ towards the climax ( I am thinking either a chord change, key change or harmonic shift…) 6/5/10

I will hopefully have some audio files up on the site soon I cant post any audio here yet………

I was very surprised to learn how easy it is to obtain a creative commons license for any creative work. The licenses are also very flexible and can be custom made to your specific desires and wants for your intellectual property. I really like the way I can choose to make my works available for use, sharing and distribution but with me still being attributed as the creator and disallowing commercial uses.

I also discovered Soundcloud through the Concept Development course. It is an amazing social networking site for composers, producers and DJs. I am totally sucked in by it.

Some of my latest tracks are up there on my profile page available for download with their new CC licenses. Check em out!!!

I also heard some tracks from hobbobass and I really enjoyed them.

Alexander Scriabin was a Romantic composer who wrote 10 piano sonatas and 74 Opus‘.

He pioneered the use of the ‘mystic chord‘ or ‘synthetic chord’ in music which builds chords on forths as opposed to thirds. It became named mystic due to its mystical sound and meaning in a Theosophical context.

This is an interesting concept and I will experiment with some of these ideas in my composition. The mystical sound could be just what im looking for…

Scriabin also named his 36th  Opus ‘Satanic Poem‘ or ‘Poeme Satanique‘. I believe this piece of music could be a usefull reference .

But…I have been unable to hear this piece of music.

If anyone has the 36th Opus or knows where I can Hear/Download or buy this piece of music please let me know.

Does anyone have Opus 36 by Alexander Scriabin…???????????????????????

Info also sourced from: http://www.answers.com/topic/alexander-scriabin

White- Information- A book is being written with a poem in a section. The poem is about something that happened in the past. I am writing a song to go with that poem.

Red- Emotion- I feel that this is a really awesome idea. I like the themes and ideas in the book. I like the dark and erotic vampire and satanic ideas. But….. I dont know how well I can pull it off.

Black-Judgement/Flaws-  My lack of music tech and compositional experience could flaw the outcome of the project.

Yellow-Judgement Good Points-  This is a really different idea. It hasn’t been done before. Its a convergence of different mediums (Using music and sound to represent emotions and feelings that were written in a novel). It could benfit me as an artist and Kay as an author. It may take time but I can achieve this due to my massive interest in music technology.

Green-Creativity- This project will be my ‘baby’ but it wilbe a collaboration where I will receive creative input from the other members of my band and Kay.

Blue-Thinking- I will need to think about the authors creative agenda. The context and meaning of the story. The target audience. Issues with copyright. More specifically I will need to investigate the ‘Queen of the Damned’ Soundtrack, Satanic rituals, Middle- Eastern music and how to balance all of these points to achieve a desirable outcome.

Here is the setting for the poem.
1. The Scene is a Satanic Ritual set in an underground chamber
2. The person singing the poem is a man who has been created to be the father of the Anti-christ.
3. The events described in the poem happened 500 years ago approx, but the piece of music is set to be heard in the present time.

Here are some of the ideas Kay described for the musical aspects
1. Kay said she thought the Soundtrack to the “Queen Of The Damned” Movie. She played me a few songs she felt had the right feel. The movies soundtrack is a very ‘dark’ and ‘heavy’ collection of songs from the ‘Nu-Metal’ and ‘Industrial’ genres.
2. Kay also felt the use of a Middle-Eastern or Egyptian sounds (scales and/or rhythms) would be appropriate. Kay even demonstrated a traditional ‘Zaar’ (also known as ‘Zar’ or ‘Ayyuub’) rhythm on my Darbukka.

3. She also outlined that the music needed to sound ‘Entrancing’ and ‘Seductive’ in the beginning of the piece and build up into ‘heavy climax’.